Originally Posted by
iluvdoco
Incredible! Awesome TR. A couple questions.
1) How cold was it? Seems like some people are just standing around in fleeces on the open deck.
2) No danger of falling into the water for people who did stand up paddling?
3) How close can you get to a penguin or were most of your photos taken using a telephoto?
The temperature was surprisingly mild - the coldest we experienced was probably in the 20s, although the wind chill brought it down a bit further. On the sunny days it probably reached 40F. At more than one point I stripped down my top layer to just a T-shirt or a sweater (although I still left all my bottom layers on).
I'm sure there was some danger of falling in the water for the paddle-boarders. They only got to do it when conditions were pristine, and I'm sure they had some kind of safety briefing about it. I don't know what it entailed.
You are not allowed to approach the penguins and they ask that you keep at least 10-15 feet away from them. However you do not need to move should the penguins approach you, and this happened routinely. On more than one occasion I had a penguin just stroll by within arm's reach. Most of the photos were done with a telephoto lens though.